Saturday, March 15, 2014

Great Low Carb Potato Substitutes

Let's face it, low carb and keto, paleo and primal living isn't always easy or clear cut. People talk, you hear things. And it isn't always the "correct" information. This is especially true to the newbie. You're filled with questions and indecision. Sometimes your head reals with questions! And you want to be quick to know what's legal and what makes a great tasting substitute for your formerly well-loved foods...like potatoes!

Everyone wants to know the best substitute for potatoes! What is the lowest carb potato substitute on the face of the earth? How many calories do the low carb/keto potato substitutes have? Are low carb potato substitutes primal or paleo? Are they diabetic friendly? And just how many carbs in each keto potato substitute compared to each other?

Well, Fluffy Chix Cook took your questions seriously! We created this nifty little chart arranged by order of the net effective carbohydrate for each low carb/keto potato substitute.

Net Carbs = g Total Carbs - g Fiber

Net effective carbohydrates or Net Carbs for short are expressed in grams and is a simple equation. Take the total carbs and subtract the fiber (don't worry at this point if the fiber is soluble or insolube...take the total fiber content). That's the Net Carb count for a food and is thought by many to equal the amount of carbohydrate capable of acting upon blood sugar and insulin production. In other words, net carbs tell us how big of a blood sugar spike we might expect after a meal. Diabetics use this type of information to determine serving size, and medication amounts (if they control their numbers with medicine).

We tend to use raw weight measures (preferring scale measurements in ounces or grams) as opposed to volume measurement (measuring cups or spoons). Anyone who has tried to measure a cup of raw lettuce or spinach will understand why an absolute weight is preferable to a volume measure.

Equally, raw measure is more consistent than cooked measures. 1 cup of raw baby spinach will weight much less than 1 cup of cooked baby spinach. And when measuring the cup of cooked spinach, did you quickly and lightly saute it? Or did you cook it until it was mush! Because you can pack a higher quantity of that well-cooked baby spinach into a cup than you can of lightly cooked or raw baby spinach. And those amounts will all have a different weight.

But if you know how much 3 ounces of a raw ingredient weighs (3 ounces is a standard serving size for vegetables), then you eat the amount that turns out, once it's cooked to your desired level of doneness. Right?

So here's an infographic for common low carb/keto potato substitutes along with the nutritional information about each ingredient. Each potato sub is based on 3 ounces of raw measurement. Remember portion distortion runs rampant and can make or break your carb count. 3 ounces of rutabaga isn't much--but 3 ounces of sliced radishes sure looks like a lot more!

If it helps, I can tell you that Jicama makes a wonderful pan of hash browns. I also slice them for faux french fries. I've done the same with Daikon, but prefer the Jicama. Haven't tried turnip fries yet, but I can verify that a small, young baked turnip has almost the same taste as a baked potato -- with butter and sour cream (and, for me, a TON of pepper) no way would I have been able to tell the difference if I hadn't done the cooking.